Breathe (one shot)
by HoneydeuxMelon
Summary: A short vampire thing I scribbled down a few years ago.


In, out. In, out.  
I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. I hear the steady beating of his heart, hear the soft sounds of his footsteps on the grass, and smell the blood pumping through his veins. My name is Akiira, and I'm a vampire.  
I open my eyes and peer above the newspaper that I am pretending to read. The boy is walking in front of me, listening to the headphones that cover his ears. He stops, and turns to me. He smiles in a friendly way, and raises one of his hands. I don't know him. I don't think he knows me. I force a smile and nod my head, returning to my newspaper. He continues on his way. The scent of his blood is so good, it is a wonder I can keep my composure. I have to wait until the opportune moment, wait. Wait.  
It is so hard. So incredibly hard. I long for the blood on my tongue so badly, my body trembles in anticipation. In, out. In, out.  
I must focus. If I don't, I could make a terrible mistake, and have to run away again. I don't want that. I want to stay here, where people's blood isn't poisoned with all that crap they call 'fast-food', where people don't believe in supernatural creatures such as myself. The truth is, there are plenty of 'abnormal' creatures in this world. But humans have become so blind it's quite easy for us to create magical shields to shape our molecular structure to make us appear as humans.  
I look up again. The boy appears to have completely forgotten about me. I gently set the newspaper down on the bench, and stalk after him with silent footsteps. I reach up to my mouth and feel my canines. They grow underneath my fingers, becoming long and sharp. I grin at the boy's back, pleased to have found such easy prey. He stiffens, and I take cover in the shade of a large oak tree. The boy takes the headphones off his head, and turns to where I am hiding. He smiles evilly and begins to speak.  
"I know you're there, vampire. Come out and get me, if you dare." His eyes flash a bloody-red color as he watches the shadows play on the ground.  
I clench my fist and pound it against my thigh, cursing under my breath. This boy is not a normal human, I should have known that the second I tasted his scent on the wind. He is a slayer! The most feared of supernatural creatures, having the ability to slay even those who are already dead, such as vampires or zombies. How was it possible that I fell for his trap? I should have been able to see right through his magic...  
"What's the matter, afraid of little old me? I won't hurt you, much." As the obvious lies leave his lips, he stoops over and seemingly picks up a shadow. I watch with narrowed eyes as the shadow bends and shapes itself into a large scythe with rusty-red stains on the blade. The moonlight bounces off of it, shining directly into my eyes. I hiss in frustration, baring my teeth at the cursed weapon.  
The boy leans on the scythe and cocks his head at me, acting innocent.  
"Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt your sensitive little eyes?" He smiles again, fully aware that he is in a very advantageous position. He runs his finger along the sharp side of the blade, and pulls it away without a scratch.  
"Like it? This is a very rare artifact, thousands of years old. It is my inheritance from my father, and he from his father. It has been handed down in my family since the very beginning of the slayer race."  
I yawn in an obvious manner and stretch my arms. Then I speak, my voice husky from lack of use these past months.  
"You seem to like bragging, little boy." I sneer at him. "But no matter how 'special' you or your family is, you will never be able to get even the slightest scratch on me." I bluff, trying to catch him off his guard. "I am the highest of high vampires, a pure blooded queen!" That, of course, is a total and complete lie. I don't know who my sire or my mother are. I don't even know if they still walk this Earth. But I don't give a damn, they never helped me when I was little, learning to live on the streets.  
The boy is still smiling, but I can see it falter for just a second.  
"Oh really? Well this should be an interesting battle, then. I might actually get hurt!" He readies his scythe, and beckons me forward with a twitch of his hand. I crouch down, putting myself in the best position possible for sprouting my wings. For a few seconds, we stay like that. No one moving, no one breathing. Then he leaps at me, swinging his scythe in a deadly arc. I roll to the side, just barely clearing the blade. If I hadn't moved, I would have been impaled cleanly. I bare my teeth in a feral snarl, and throw myself at him. Stupid, I know, but I have to take him by surprise so my wings can finish unfurling. Fortunately, my plan worked. I knock him to the ground and gouge out bloody furrows on his arms with my sharp fingernails. His eyes flare bright red and he swings a fist towards my face. I grab it with my hand, blocking it easily. Though demon-slayers are powerful in their magics and sorcery, physically they are weak as a human. Pathetic.  
Fortunately for him, my wings had finished retracting themselves from my back, and I retreat from him. I scale up a tall tree and throw myself from the pinnacle, my wings catching the slight breeze. I beat them two or three times for good measure, and I'm on my way. Pity I have to leave such a good feeding site, but I don't dare getting cornered by him again. I'm lucky he wasn't as experienced as some others I had heard of, I would have been destroyed if it were so.

I open my backpack and get out rolls of bandages to wrap my arms in before I start to bleed all over the place. I stare up at the distant speck on the moon with hatred pouring out of my glare. That vampire lady was as powerful as she said she was, though I didn't really believe it at first. I thought for sure that she was bluffing! I finish wrapping my arms and stand up on wobbly legs, bracing myself with my scythe. Her nails had been poisoned, and I was weakening.  
"Damned bat!" I curse at the moon. "If it's the last thing I do, I WILL get revenge on you for making a fool of me! I will cut you into shreds and tear your heart from your dying body, forcing you to watch as I impale it upon the mighty Rrakk!" I lift my scythe up and it gleams, responding to my oath and it's name. I limp away into the darkness, never forgetting my oath, or my humiliation at being beaten down by my own prey.


End file.
